Well, that was an interesting Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren nearly tripped over themselves on their way to a one-two, while Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing had a meltdown.
It was a hot grand prix as well, with track temperatures giving headaches for the Formula 1 teams' engineers who had a challenge in setting up their cars for the best tyre usage.
McLaren arrived in Budapest with no upgrades, but with the intention of eliminating mistakes in race execution, which cost them at the British Grand Prix, while Red Bull brought a major upgrade package hoping to regain their former glory.
Mercedes, on the other hand, arrived on a high following consecutive wins in Austria and Britain, but were brought back to earth, as had it not been for Red Bull dropping the ball, Lewis Hamilton wouldn't have finished on the podium, not to mention George Russell's disastrous qualifying.
But the best story out of all this was Oscar Piastri becoming the 115th F1 race winner, his first win in top flight as he led McLaren's first one-two since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.
Piastri's first win was not a straightforward one, and with that we start our Takeaways from the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix.
McLaren's pathetic driver management
Piastri and Norris presented McLaren with a dilemma from lap one, as the former beat the latter off the line and into Turn 1. It is a dilemma every other team on the grid would like to suffer from to be honest, but McLaren did not seem ready for it.
By strategy, the team put Norris ahead of Piastri after the second round of stops, the reason being to cover off Hamilton's attempt of an undercut, although the seven-time F1 Champion was not really a risk.
At first glance, one would've thought that McLaren gave that reason as an excuse to help Norris win, as he is the closer of their drivers to Verstappen in the F1 Drivers' Championship, and frankly no one should hold that against them, as this would put Red Bull and their lead driver under more pressure.
But as it turned out, that was not the case, evident from their orders to Norris to slow down and switch places with Piastri.
Naturally, Norris' race driver instincts kicked in, and thus started the endless radio communication as the pitwall pathetically, yes pathetically, tried to convince their reluctant driver to cede his position.
One has to hand it to Norris' engineer as he came up with reason after reason relentlessly trying to convince him to switch places with Piastri. It was like a parent trying to coerce a toddler who somehow got hold of the kitchen knife to let it go.
Regardless of McLaren's intention with their strategy, I don't mind, nor do I care. They had the right to give the win to Norris, as much as they had the right to give it to Piastri, but whichever direction they follow, they should've exercised their authority firmly.
Norris said he was planning to give the position on the final lap but the team told him a Safety Car would not allow Piastri to pass and he would end up looking like an idiot. What if the Safety Car came out even earlier? Who would have been the idiot then?
Unless McLaren wanted Norris to win to keep the pressure on Verstappen, the Briton should've received the following radio message from Andrea Stella: You lost your chance when you messed up your start, now hand over the place!
Another sad thing about McLaren's team order saga is that it somehow over shadowed Piastri's first F1 win, but that doesn't take anything away from the Aussie. This was just a first with many to come.
Verstappen and Red Bull's meltdown
In my takeaways column following the British GP, I said Red Bull should take action after failing to win any race in the triple header.
In Hungary, they did. They brought a major upgrade package for their RB20 which seemed to work but fell short of delivering a performance improvement enough to beat McLaren.
Again the Dutchman made the difference in qualifying missing out on pole by 0.046s, but the race was a totally different story.
Instead of fighting the McLarens, Verstappen ended up fighting with Hamilton and sometimes Charles Leclerc as both Mercedes and Ferrari fancied their chances beating Red Bull. Both managed to undercut the #1 Red Bull in the second round pitstops and while Verstappen re-passed Leclerc, he crashed with Hamilton while attempting to overtake for third.
It was just a bad day for Red Bull, who as Helmut Marko said misjudged the overtaking possibilities at the Hungaroring, and thought they could pass on track if they got undercut, but they couldn't.
What made matters worse was Verstappen losing his cool behind the wheel, with a race-long rant with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase complaining about the strategy he was given, but with the RB20's pace, I don't think the Red Bull pitwall could've done more.
One more thing, it was Verstappen who failed to pass Hamilton at every attempt so he shoulders some of the blame there since there is no way that Mercedes was the better car.
Now there is so much talk about Verstappen's language over the radio, but that should not be the issue, the issue is the fact that he lost his temper as McLaren and Norris are now breathing down his neck.
Athletes in other sports use colorful language and we know that, but those have a luxury since what they say is not broadcasted for the whole world to hear, so let's cut Verstappen some slack there.
But we cannot give him a free pass when he buckles under pressure and loses his cool. After becoming a triple F1 Champion and now fighting for his fourth, we expect a more composed and mature Max.
Shout and complain all you like over the radio, but do not let that affect your driving. Verstappen insisted his driving wasn't affected by being annoyed, but we beg to differ.
Hungarian Grand Prix Quick Hits
- A decent recovery drive from Sergio Perez in an RB20 that did not have all the upgrades, but imagine what he could've done had he not crashed in qualifying.
The deadline for Red Bull's decision is looming and Checo needs to get his act together. He must deliver a perfect weekend in Spa in order to stand a chance of keeping his seat; that is if his fate is not sealed already... - Mercedes were served with a reality check after their back to back wins in Austria and Britain. As qualifying showed, they belong in Group B of the F1 grid; Verstappen, Norris, and Piastri being the members of the elite Group A.
Their mistake in qualifying - not fueling Russell's Mercedes for more that one run - was uncharacteristic of the them. - Another subpar weekend for Ferrari, as they were still trying to find out why their SF-24 suddenly started bouncing after its recent upgrade, and had brought a new floor hoping it would solve the problem.
The results delivered by their new anti-bouncing floor are inconclusive. Did it actually work? Or was the bouncing less due to the Hungaroring's layout?
Fred Vasseur insisted they are back on track... Let's wait and see. - Another anonymous weekend for Aston Martin who also have brought a major upgrade. Only Lance Stroll scored one point while Fernando Alonso failed to do so.
What is worrying is that the feisty Spaniard seems to be as if he couldn't be bothered to drive these days.
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